Privacy Policy

Tradesmen Marketplace Inc.
Effective Date: [to be set at launch]

Tradesmen Marketplace Inc. ("we," "us," or "our") operates an online marketplace connecting customers with tradespeople in British Columbia, from Revelstoke to Osoyoos, including Kamloops. We value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and handle personal information. It is intended to meet the requirements of the British Columbia Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

1. Information We Collect

We collect personal information needed to run our marketplace:

• Email and Account Details: Your email address, login details, and the information you give us when you register.
• Tradesmen Profile Information: Information tradespeople choose to add to their profile, such as the services they offer and their service area.
• Messages: Messages exchanged between customers and tradespeople through the in-app messaging.
• Reviews: Reviews submitted about services and projects.
• Reports: Records created when a user reports misconduct or inappropriate content.
• Blocks and Reports: Who you have blocked or reported, and the reason you gave for a report.
• Search Text and Job Descriptions: What you type into search and the job descriptions you write.
• Technical Information: Our systems may record standard technical information when you use the service, such as your IP address, browser type, and access times.
• Usage Information: When you use the site we record the items below. The analytics record does not include your name, email address or account details.
  • What you look at: the screens and tradesperson profiles you view, the trade and town we read from each search (analytics does not record the words you typed), and the contact buttons you tap.
  • Where you came from: the name of the website that sent you here (site name only, not the page address) and, if the link carried them, its campaign labels (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content). We do not record the rest of that address.
  • How you use each screen: how long you actively look at it, how far down you scroll, and how long the page took to load.
  • Your device: device type (mobile, tablet or desktop), window width rounded to a standard size, browser language, and browser and operating system family, for example "Chrome on Android". Our server works the family out from your browser's identification string; we do not keep the string.
  • Contact, sign-in and links: that you tapped an email, phone or WhatsApp link, that a sign-in succeeded, and the name of the website (not the page) when you click a link out to another site.
  • Place: your approximate country, worked out from your network address when your browser contacts us. Our analytics record does not store your IP address and does not work out your city. Our systems may still record your IP address as described under Technical Information.
  • Automated visits: traffic that looks like a robot is flagged so it can be left out of the counts.
  • Stored in your browser: a random visitor ID in local storage that tells new visitors from returning ones and stays until you clear your browser data, and a random visit ID and screen counter in session storage that are cleared when you close the tab.

2. Verification Records

To support trust and safety, we may check trade qualifications and identification provided by tradespeople. Our practice is:

• We do not keep copies of identity documents.
• We keep only an administrative record noting: "checked on <date> by <admin>".

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information for these purposes:

• Connecting customers and tradespeople and letting them message each other.
• Managing user accounts and displaying public profile information.
• Publishing reviews.
• Handling reports and keeping the community safe.
• Improving the service.
• Meeting our obligations under applicable Canadian law.

We measure how the site is used with an analytics tool that our service provider, WizardWeb, runs for us, using the usage information listed in section 1. We use it to see where visitors come from, which screens and trades they look at, where they leave, and how quickly pages load. We add the events up into daily totals, and the individual events are also stored. We have not yet set how long we keep them. We use no advertising trackers or third-party ad pixels, and WizardWeb does not sell this visit data or share it with advertisers.

4. Administrative Review of Messages

User safety and trust are critical to our marketplace. Platform administrators may read any in-app message in order to handle reports and keep the community safe. Please do not treat in-app messages as private from our administrators.

5. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Features

Some features of the service may use artificial intelligence (AI), for example to help with search:

• Our AI features send only search text and job descriptions to the AI service.
• We never send personal names, contact information, photos, or private messages to AI services.

6. Communications and Marketing (CASL)

Text messages and marketing are opt-in, as Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) requires:

• We send text messages and marketing only to people who have opted in. We will not send commercial text messages or marketing emails without your express consent.
• You can withdraw your consent at any time. Every marketing message we send will include a way to unsubscribe, and you can also reach us at the contact address on this site.
• We may still email you messages needed to operate your account, such as notices about your account, safety, or an active inquiry. These are not marketing.

7. Sharing and Disclosure

This section explains when we share personal information:

• Service Providers: We use outside service providers to run the service, for example for hosting, website analytics, email and text message delivery, and the AI features described in section 5. We will share personal information with them only as needed for them to provide those services.
• Legal Requirements and Safety: We may disclose personal information where Canadian law requires or permits it, such as in response to a court order or warrant, or where we believe disclosure is needed to protect someone's safety.

8. Storage in Canada

When Tradesmen Marketplace launches, personal information will be stored on servers located in Canada.

9. Retention and Account Deletion

We will keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or longer where the law requires.

When you choose to delete your account:

• We will remove your profile from the site.
• Reviews and messages stay on the platform after account deletion. We keep them as a record of what was said and reviewed on the platform.

10. Security Safeguards

We will use reasonable safeguards to protect personal information, as PIPA and PIPEDA require. No method of sending or storing information over the Internet is completely secure, and we cannot promise that your information will never be accessed without permission.

11. Your Privacy Rights

Under British Columbia's PIPA and federal PIPEDA, you hold specific rights regarding your personal information:

• Access: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and receive information regarding how it has been used or disclosed.
• Correction: You have the right to request corrections to any factual inaccuracies or incomplete details in your personal information.
• Withdraw Consent: Where you have provided consent for the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice. Withdrawing consent may limit your ability to use certain platform features.
• Inquiries and Complaints: If you have questions or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us at the contact address on this site. If our response does not resolve your concern, you have the right to contact:
  • The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (OIPC)
  • The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC)

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices, platform features, or applicable legal requirements. When we do, we will post the revised policy on our platform with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this policy from time to time.

13. Contact Us

We have not yet named a privacy officer. Until we do, if you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, contact us at the contact address on this site.